[Seoul, S.Korea]:Seoul National University

Government and Law < Political SystemsGovernment and Law < Laws and Legislation

Holding

Seoul National University

Abstract

It is a non sequitur to attempt to combat political and bureaucratic corruption while leaving intact the existing regulatory structure and practices-the single-most important source of incentives to engage in corrupt activities for bothe private and public actors. Anti-corruption efforts will be self-defeating if they are made without keeping this fact clearly in mind. Unfortunately, however, this obvious fact is not well recognized. The lack of recognition can be found in the sidespread erroneous belief that all the government regulations exist to protect and enhance the public interest. This is emphatically not so. As abundant literature on rent-seeking or economic theory of regulation amply attests, a large chunkk of regulations has come into being as a result of self-interested attempts to appropriate economic rents, which must be created in the exercise of government's power over allocation of resources. (The rest omitted)